Chapter 3539
Chapter 3539
Chapter 3539
For the commanders of the Kyushu coalition, the last few days have probably been the most proud days of their lives.
As far as they could remember, the shogunate had always been high above them, taking whatever they wanted from the local feudal states and imposing many restrictions. For projects like foreign trade, which were very lucrative, the shogunate kept the management rights in its own hands, and only allowed the Kyushu feudal states to open trading posts in the Nagasaki Port, which was directly under the shogunate, to make some leftovers.
On the one hand, Kyushu was not allowed to get involved in the lucrative cross-border trade; on the other hand, the tax standards in Kyushu were raised year by year to weaken its economic strength.
Before receiving support from Hai Han, all resistance in the Jiuzhou region was futile and failed to even make a splash.
But the situation is very different now. The armed forces of the various fiefdoms in Kyushu are no longer what they used to be, not to mention that they have the powerful support of Hai Han behind them.
The shogunate army, which seemed invincible in the past, was now firmly blocked across the strait by the coalition forces and had not gained any advantage over the coalition forces in many battles.
On the contrary, the coalition's cross-sea operations have reaped rich rewards. They have successfully attacked many port cities under the rule of the shogunate and seized a large amount of resources through these actions.
Although Hai Han warned several daimyos not to be too happy too soon as the real test had yet to come, it was clear that the daimyos were very satisfied with the victories they had achieved at this stage, and even a little too proud of themselves.
After learning that his fleet had successfully raided Hiroshima, the Satsuma daimyo Shimazu Mitsuhisa even held a banquet in the camp to celebrate.
The Tsushima army, which had previously successfully looted Ogi Castle, the capital of the Choshu domain, had secretly dispatched a dozen ships at the instruction of the daimyo So Yoshizane to pack up all the looted supplies and personnel and send them back to Tsushima Island.
These little actions naturally could not escape the surveillance of the Hai Han Executive Committee, but faced with this kind of behavior of popping champagne at halftime, the Executive Committee had no better solution.
The vision, knowledge and personal qualities of these daimyos are limited to this level. They have to show off after winning a battle. Expecting them to remain restrained and low-key would probably be more difficult than commanding a battle themselves.
Relatively low-key was Hosokawa Tsunatoshi of the Kumamoto domain, but this might also be related to the fact that he was not very old and had not had time to be infected with the local tyrant habits of other daimyo.
Last year, the Kumamoto clan was involved in internal strife, and Hosokawa Tsunatoshi was placed under house arrest and nearly lost his daimyo status. In the process of regaining power, the Kumamoto clan also suffered considerable damage due to internal friction.
Although later Hosokawa Tsuna demonstrated the determination of the Kumamoto clan by sending troops to occupy Nagasaki, the Kumamoto clan was still far behind the stronger Satsuma clan in the coalition forces.
In addition, Hosokawa Tsunayoshi was too young, and the other daimyo were not willing to be on equal terms with such a young man, and did not pay much attention to his opinions when discussing battle plans. Therefore, the Kumamoto clan had little say in the coalition forces, and most of the time it just cooperated with the actions of the other clans, and it was difficult to get a chance to take charge on its own.
However, Hosokawa Tsunatoshi's situation actually won him more support from Hai Han. The Ministry of National Defense even sent several combat staff officers to stay in the Kumamoto Army as military advisers.
This support may have been due to the fact that Hosokawa Tsunayoshi was young and promising, or it may have been to balance the various forces in the Kyushu coalition. In any case, the Kumamoto domain benefited a lot without anyone noticing.
Hosokawa Tsunatoshi was probably grateful for this special care. He was the only one among the daimyo who really listened to Hai Han's warnings and reminders. He did not celebrate or rush to fight for victory in the past few days. Instead, he quietly let his troops take advantage of the intervals between battles to rest and prepare for the next round of combat missions. His cautious attitude not only won more appreciation from Hai Han, but also proved the value of the Kumamoto Domain in the following battles.
Just three days after the Allied Forces successfully attacked Hiroshima, the Shogunate army launched a new round of offensive.
This time, the shogunate army did not choose to attack the hilly position, but instead targeted the coastal plain on the Kyushu Island side at the western end of the Sekiguchi Strait.
Compared with the attack point chosen by the shogunate army in the first round of offensive, the sea here is more than ten times wider, and the risk of being intercepted by the Kyushu Allied Fleet during the crossing process is also greatly increased.
However, the coastal plain here is more than ten miles wide and deep, which is more suitable for large troops to gather and deploy after landing. In addition, there are almost no commanding heights on the coast, so there is no need to worry about the landing troops being hit by fire from above.
Tokugawa Ietsugu had previously chosen the hilly area with rugged terrain as the main attack direction because the narrow strait there was convenient for troop deployment and could be broken through with one attack. He thought it was a loophole, but he never expected that he had fallen into the pocket set up by the Kyushu coalition forces. After several days of struggle and the loss of thousands of people, he was unable to make a breakthrough.
So after learning from his mistakes, Tokugawa Ietsugu decided to change his thinking and seek areas where the opponent could hardly deploy dense defenses as the main direction of attack. He would first send a large force to Kyushu Island and force the opponent to launch a decisive battle on the front battlefield.
As for the transportation risks brought about by the increase in the width of the strait, after comprehensively analyzing intelligence from all aspects, Tokugawa Ietsugu believed that the number of the opponent's warships had been greatly reduced after several days of fighting, and it was impossible to organize a large-scale naval battle as at the beginning.
The shogunate army assembled medium and large sea vessels from half of the country. The quality may not be very high, but the absolute number is definitely far ahead of the opponent. There is every chance that they can deploy a large number of troops to the coastal plain on the opposite bank in a short period of time.
Although there were many signs before the shogunate army launched the operation, the Kyushu coalition forces, which had won consecutive victories, still did not pay enough attention to it, thinking that the other side might still be feinting to lure their troops to divide up and set up defenses.
It was not until one morning when the shogunate army suddenly dispatched hundreds of sailboats on a sea more than ten miles wide that the Kyushu coalition forces realized that this feint attack had turned into a real sea crossing offensive.
The performance of the Allied fleet, which responded hastily, was not ideal. When faced with many targets at sea, the limited firepower on the ships seemed inadequate.
The shogunate army had suffered a series of setbacks recently, and had long been eager to fight the coalition forces. The shogunate had deployed almost all of the advanced warships it had purchased from Hai Han in recent years, hoping to take advantage of this opportunity to deplete the Kyushu coalition's naval forces as much as possible.
The inspection team, which was far away on the other side of the strait, did not receive the news until two hours after the war broke out. They quickly organized the guests to board the ship and rush to the battlefield more than 20 miles away.
However, it was precisely because of this sudden situation that the steam power system on the Hai Han ship also had the opportunity to be demonstrated.
The fleet emitting white smoke was traveling at high speed through the strait, making it very easy to identify and would not be mistakenly attacked by the warring parties.
The flagship of the East China Sea Fleet, Zhoushan, carrying a large number of time travelers who were eager to watch the excitement, was the first to arrive at the scene at a high speed of 15 knots.